Community Building Milestones Over A Decade of Sustainability

Community building is a multidimensional process, which aims at maintaining and improving the well-being of individuals, communities, and society as a whole. In our industry, bringing people together under one roof for attending a type of event is one thing, but does not attribute wholly to the concept of ‘building a community’. Meetings and events are the means of sharing strong experiences, ideas, concepts, and actions, tying like-minded attendees together.

Community building projects offer great support to local communities, but at the same time, are powerful business tools for increasing the impact of an event. More specifically, they provide a competitive advantage to clients, both in terms of improving their corporate social responsibility credibility and by bringing various stakeholders together for a good cause, facilitating networking and the exchange of ideas.

For more than a decade, sustainable strategies have been integral to our mission, core values, and growth strategy. In retrospect, the road has been filled with momentous milestones. Here are a few examples, highlighting MCI’s contribution to communities, while driving business results:

MCI Dubai‘s Dream Day – where the team collaborated with the Red Crescent to support 20 orphan kids of different nationalities who lost their parents in the war zone.

MCI Vancouver raised $1,170 for the Canucks Autism Network (CAN) to help the foundation spread awareness, provide year-round, high- quality sports, recreational, arts, and social programmes for families living with autism across British Columbia.

MCI Stockholm organised a fund-raising exercise to provide aid for Syrian refugees who had to flee to Lebanon. In partnership with Save the Children, the amount of €1,565 was raised for those in need.

MCI Amsterdam has been supporting the Dreambuilders project since 2014 sending talents to Nagarkot, Nepal for helping with the improvement of the school environment and education for local children.

For the World Congress for Safety and Health in Singapore, MCI invited Social Enterprise, Nuevo Dance Fitness to demonstrate an exercise suitable for individuals with limited mobility. The aim was to promote a healthier lifestyle and engage attendees in a friendly routine.

In this year’s International Congress for Conservation Biology (ICCB 2017) in Cartagena, MCI collaborated with the Society for Conservation Biology (SCB), where 12K$ were invested in 2 certified local projects. One on the reforestation and restoration of over 4000 hectares in Puerto Carreño, Vichada and the other on reducing the consumption of firewood by constructing and installing efficient cooking stoves in rural communities of Colombia. For the full report on how these projects will help offset 100% of the event’s carbon emissions, visit here.

It is also important to remember that community building is a catalyst for communicating the importance of promoting sustainable practices for our business at a greater level. For example, look at the recent collaboration between ICCA, ICCA’s Scandinavian Chapter, IMEX and MCI, where we co-created the Global Destination Sustainability Index with city rankings to help industry experts drive the adoption, promotion and recognition of responsible practices in the events industry. Read more information here.

To discover how we can help you design a sustainable event that elevates your brand and exceeds expectations in attendee participation, visit us here.